by M. E. Castle
“Look, you know how everyone’s been acting … weird lately?” Fisher said. Amanda nodded, watching him suspiciously. “It’s all Three’s fault. And we need your help to stop him.”
Amanda exhaled slowly. “I knew it,” she said. “At last, I knew you, or one of the other … yous … had to be tangled up in this.” She sighed. “Is there a plan?”
“Yes,” said Fisher. “And we’ve picked up an … unlikely ally.” He took a deep breath. Now came the hard part. “Listen, I need you to trust me and Alex.”
“What are you talking about?” Amanda said.
“I’m talking about … Dr. X,” said Fisher. “We’re working with him. Or he’s working with us.”
“What??” Amanda said. Her eyes bugged out so far, they practically dislodged her glasses. “Are you insane??”
“Probably,” admitted Fisher. “But we haven’t got a choice. Promise me you won’t demolish him on sight.”
Amanda looked away. A muscle worked in her jaw. “I … promise,” she muttered at last. Then she turned back to him. “So are we going to do this or not?”
Fisher nodded. “Where are your parents? Do you have to leave them a note or something?”
Amanda waved a hand. “They’re in the basement playing Monopoly,” she said. “Have been ever since we lost power last night. They won’t even notice I’m gone.”
Fisher signaled to Alex, who was still waiting down the street with Dr. X, half concealed behind the still-smoking car. Alex gripped Dr. X by the arm and marched him over to Amanda’s house.
“You,” Amanda said, eyes blazing. She cocked back her right arm. Fisher stepped in between them.
“No,” he said. “You promised.”
She kept her fist where it was—directly in line with Dr. X’s nose.
“Amanda,” Alex cut in, “we have to stop Three. Millions of people could be hurt by him if we don’t. And we need all the help we can get.” His voice dropped to a whisper. “I promise … when we’re done, I won’t stop you. Heck, I’ll sell tickets and popcorn.” He smiled a little.
Amanda grumbled something and dropped her hand.
Just then there were footsteps in the dark hallway beyond her.
And Veronica Greenwich stepped out onto the porch next to her.
“Veronica?!” Fisher said. He feared for a second the crazy pox actually had affected him, and he was seeing things.
“Hey, Fisher,” said Veronica quietly. Her face was pale and her eyes were ringed with dark circles. “I was visiting Amanda, trying to smooth things out when her power went out. My parents thought it’d be safer if I stayed put.” She took a deep breath. “Funny you’re here. I was hoping you might be able to explain some things. Such as exactly what’s happening. And why there are a thousand androids with your face imposing martial law on Palo Alto.”
Fisher met Veronica’s gaze. He realized that she had every right not to trust him. He’d been lying to her from the beginning. It was a bad habit, and he figured he had more than enough of those already.
“I … I haven’t been totally honest with you,” he said, his heart thudding into his ribs. “But I’m going to fix that.” He took a deep breath. “Alex isn’t my cousin.” Veronica looked from him to Alex. When she saw Dr. X, whom she recognized as only Mr. Granger, she frowned and shook her head.
“Who is he, then?” she asked, looking back at Alex.
“He’s my clone,” Fisher pushed out. “I made him.”
Veronica’s eyes snapped back to Fisher’s.
“You … made him?”
He nodded miserably. “In my home lab.”
Amazingly, her eyes took on an expression of wonder.
“That’s … incredible, Fisher,” she said.
“I sent him to school …,” he went on.
“Because you couldn’t take the way people treated you anymore,” she said. He was so startled, he felt like she’d hit him with a miniature lightning bolt. “You were ignored, pushed around, beaten up. You didn’t think you had any friends.”
Fisher stared back at Veronica.
“Yes,” he said. “That’s exactly it. How …?”
Veronica managed a small smile. “Fisher, it’s amazing that you cloned yourself. But why you did it is pretty obvious.” She shook her head. “Well, that explains why you’d occasionally act so strange and unlike yourself. You weren’t yourself.” Then she noticed Dr. X. “What about you, Mr. Granger? What are you doing here? I thought you retired.”
“I am doing my best to help in this extremely dangerous endeavor,” Dr. X replied.
Veronica’s eyes narrowed quizzically for a few seconds, then got very wide.
“You’re Dr. X,” she said, with a breathy matter-of-factness.
This time, everyone turned to stare at her, including Dr. X himself.
“How … did you know that?” he asked.
“I could always tell something was off about you,” said Veronica. “And I was always interested in the mysterious Dr. X. I watched all those videos, some many times. I watched Family Feudalism, too. When you started rambling on about your lost empire, most people just thought you were crazy. Deluded.”
“That’s not totally inaccurate …,” Alex pointed out.
“But not me,” Veronica continued. “I listened.” Her lips formed a triumphant smirk. “Now, seeing you here, is all the proof I need.”
Fisher’s jaw was doing its best to scrape up a mouthful of dirt from the yard. He’d been so concerned with how Veronica felt about him that he’d never spent a moment wondering what she thought about him—what she thought about anything.
“Wow,” he said. “I’m … really impressed.”
“That means a lot coming from someone who cloned himself,” Veronica said with a grin. “So why are there Fisher-shaped robots all around? And why is he here?” She pointed to Dr. X.
“Because we need all the allies we can get,” said Alex. “Even vicious, evil ones with unfortunately sized noses.”
“It’s regal!” said Dr. X, hoisting his nose in the air proudly.
“There’s a third clone,” said Fisher. “A clone that Granger made. But he changed him, twisted him around. He’s an emotionless villain. He’s behind all of this. He made the Fisher-bots.”
“And now we have to find him, and stop him,” said Amanda, still eyeing Dr. X warily.
“All right,” said Veronica, cracking her knuckles. “We’ve got no time to lose. You can fill in the details on the way.”
After much thinking, I’ve changed my mind.
The number of Fisher Bases on Earth should be limited to one, or less.
—Dr. X, Personal Journal
It was close to evening when the group set out. The sun was already dipping toward the horizon. Fisher wondered if he would ever see it rise again. It was a question he’d asked himself a few times too many for a twelve-year-old.
They’d have to pass through a small residential area. Then cross an open stretch along a larger road and past some stores and shopping areas, as well as the TechX ruin. Then they’d reach Wompalog.
“Did you ever get hold of Agent Mason?” said Amanda as she nudged Wally forward with a foot to keep him from chasing FP.
“No,” Alex said grimly, shaking his head. “We have to assume we’re on our own.”
“Almost on our own.” Fisher reached down and scratched Wally’s chin, and the wombat started nuzzling his ankles. FP ran over and tried to push Wally aside with his head.
Fisher bent down and scooped up one animal in each arm. “We have a very important mission ahead of us and we all have to concentrate,” he said, addressing the small mammals. “Are you both up to the task?”
FP snorted. Fisher swore he saw Wally salute.
“Okay, then,” he said, putting the animals down. “First thing we have to do is get out of the neighborhood.”
“Patrols are pretty light around here,” Amanda said. “It’s getting past the edge of the neighborhood on to
the main road that leads to Wompalog that’ll be tricky.”
“Okay, then,” said Alex. “Let’s move.”
Alex and Amanda took the lead, armed with the same electric stun sticks that Fisher and Alex had carried on the previous evening. They didn’t know how well the weak zap would work against the Fisher-bots, but if the machines had poorly shielded circuits, the sticks might work even better on them than they did on humans.
Fisher and Veronica followed behind Amanda and Alex, sorting through the variety of equipment Fisher had packed into his bag to determine what would be most useful against the Fisher-bots and, eventually, Three. Dr. X took up the rear, his hands in his pockets, frowning deeply. Wally and FP flanked the group on both sides, like the cavalry screen of an ancient army.
There was nobody on the sidewalk, and no cars passed down the street. Their footsteps were eerily loud against the neighborhood’s silence. Fisher tried not to think of all that was riding on their mission. Now that Three had taken over, it would be a matter of days, if not hours, before those forces marched on Fisher’s house and tore it to pieces, looking for him and Alex.
Fisher wouldn’t let that happen.
Amanda and Alex ducked behind a parked car and motioned for the others to get down. Fisher and Veronica hid behind a second car and Dr. X crouched behind a blue USPS mailbox. Wally and FP noticed that everyone else had stopped and trotted back to Fisher.
Fisher-bots had fortified the street corner up ahead, which roughly marked the end of the neighborhood. Amanda crept back to talk to Fisher.
“Looks like they’ve cordoned off the whole area,” she said. “They’ve got a guard post on the corner, with barriers blocking the street. I just saw some guy try and get through. They stopped him and checked his ID. One of them had some kind of scanner. Do you think they could be looking for you?”
Fisher didn’t answer. He thought it likely. “How many are there?”
“Three,” Amanda said. “There are probably other posts nearby, so if we take them out, we have to do it quietly.”
“And all at the same time,” Veronica said. “I’ll lead this one.”
“Why?” Fisher said, alarmed. The idea that Veronica was putting herself in harm’s way made him feel queasy.
“They’re not looking for me,” she said. “Three doesn’t know me. I’ll set them up, and you can surround and ambush them.”
Amanda nodded to her, and crept back up to whisper the plan to Alex. Fisher took his own stun stick from his bag.
“Keep watch here,” Veronica whispered to Dr. X. “But be ready to help if we need it.” The ex-overlord nodded.
“Okay, you two,” Fisher said to FP and Wally. “Watch Dr. X. If he tries anything, bite his elbows off, okay?” The animals plunked down next to Dr. X with adorably tough looks on their faces.
The guard post was a bit more elaborate than the first one they’d seen, with a little booth next to the barriers going across the street. All three of the bots were outside, standing still, their gazes locked ahead.
“Excuse me?” Veronica said brightly, striding up to the checkpoint. “I was hoping you could help me find something. I’m trying to find the … oh, what’s it called … it’s like a coffee shop, but they have an electronics section, and a basement where they sell used clothing, so, like, you can drink your coffee as you look through clothes and Blu-ray players and stuff.…” As she spoke, she gesticulated in the general direction of downtown, and the Fisher-bots pivoted to watch her, giving Alex, Fisher, and Amanda the opportunity to move.
They moved silently up the street. Fisher steadied his grip around the stun stick. But the closer he got to the Fisher-bots, the dizzier he felt. He’d thought that having two clones would’ve made him used to seeing other hims walking around. But these were different. They stood completely motionless, their hands clasped behind their backs in their identical gray uniforms. He felt like he was looking at a mural.
Veronica was still blabbering. “I think it’s on thirteenth, or maybe eighteenth, and it’s got an old-fashioned wooden sign outside shaped like a rooster.…”
The Fisher-bots regarded her curiously, each looking like it wished to help her but could not. Fisher realized, suddenly, that they were charmed by her. Was Veronica actually flirting with these robots? Was Veronica so amazing that every single version of Fisher, no matter how robotic, would swoon when he saw her?
Either way, the Fisher-bots were completely distracted. At a nodded signal by Amanda, the three kids sprung. Fisher lunged forward and grasped the Fisher-bot by its shoulder. The bot started to turn in response, and Fisher caught a glimpse of a dead and bloodless mask of his own face. For a split second, he hesitated. The Fisher-bot shrugged his hand from its shoulder and reached for his throat.
Seeing the attack coming, Fisher stepped out of the way and jammed the stun stick into the bot’s chest. The way the bot spasmed and flailed made him feel sicker than any nameless, semidissolved glop that the Wompalog cafeteria had ever served up. The stick overheated, sparked, and burned out just as the Fisher-bot fell to the ground, deactivated.
Fisher looked down at the bot. It’s just a machine, he thought to himself. Like a car or a lawn mower. A machine, with a Fisher paint job.
All the Fisher-bots were now down, but the stun sticks were burned out and useless. Fisher, Amanda, and Alex abandoned them at the post, signaled Dr. X that the coast was clear, and moved on.
“Nice work,” Amanda said to Veronica as they walked away. Veronica smiled.
They reached the main road that led straight to school. They kept as low as they could, staying concealed behind cars, trucks, storefronts, gas stations, trees—anything that could provide cover.
“Patrol,” announced Amanda sharply.
The group dove behind two cars as five Fisher-bots marched past in perfect rhythm, gaze sweeping back and forth. Fisher tried to avoid looking at them. The more he looked at their eyes, the less he was able to think of them as machines. And if he had another moment’s hesitation, it could cost them everything.
“Clear,” Amanda said as the patrol receded behind them. “Let’s hurry.”
They ran down the road for nearly a quarter mile, until a familiar building came into view. It was Palo Alto’s new King of Hollywood franchise, sitting happily atop the filled-in TechX crater. The spot where Fisher and Alex had discovered Three’s abandoned hideout—exactly as Three had intended them to.
“Simply absurd,” Dr. X muttered. “Where once my great monument to technological advancement and the triumph of the unconquerable human intellect once stood, now there is nothing but a monument to the immortality of the deep-frying process.”
Everyone ignored him.
“How’s it look?” Fisher asked Alex, who was doing reconnaissance with a small gadget he’d made: it resembled a highlighter pen but was actually a powerful telescope.
“It looks like it’s still operating. I see workers … wait a minute. Take a look.”
Alex handed Fisher the telescope.
There were, indeed, five people inside, wearing the bright blue-and-green shirts and caps of King of Hollywood employees. And they were all exactly the same size. After a minute, Fisher glimpsed two of their faces.
“Bots,” he said. “All of them.”
“Is there anyone else in there?” said Amanda.
“Negative,” said Fisher, after taking a few more seconds to scan the place through the wide windows all along its walls. “But it looks like they’re set up with binoculars, cameras, and communications equipment.”
“It’s a surveillance post,” said Alex. “We’ll have to go pretty far out of our way if we have any hope of getting past them undetected.”
“Let’s take them out,” said Amanda.
“And burn the whole cursed place down,” said Dr. X, smacking his staff into his palm and staring hatefully at the fast-food joint. Not long ago, he’d schemed to use AGH to bring the whole chain down on the head of its owner, who’d tormen
ted him in school. “Burn it. Burn it all!”
“No,” Veronica said firmly. “Destroying the building will attract every android in town right to us. If we’re going to take out the bots, we have to be quick about it. And quiet.”
“Any suggestions on how we do that?” said Fisher.
Veronica took the telescope and peered out at the King of Hollywood for a couple of minutes.
“Right,” she said, giving the scope back to Fisher and searching his backpack for a pen and a notepad. “Here’s the plan.…”
Veronica walked into the King of Hollywood through its sleek, automatic sliding door. Three Fisher-bots stood behind the counter. Two bots moved mops back and forth endlessly on the same two square feet of floor. Fisher had given her a little microphone disguised as an earring. He’d designed it several weeks ago for Amanda, in case she’d needed to reprise her role as J. Nadine Weathersby, Fisher’s “attorney.”
“Hi,” Veronica said, walking up to the counter. “I’d like to order a small wombat to go.”
The bots blinked at her blankly.
“We are very sorry,” one of them said, in a clipped mechanical voice. “We do not know the meaning of wombat.”
Veronica smiled. “How silly of me,” she said. “I’ll show you.” She gave a sharp whistle, and Wally and FP darted into the building, scrambling in quick loops around the restaurant. The Fisher-bots on cleaning duty dropped their mops to chase the animals.
Wally and FP bolted out of the King of Hollywood and into the parking lot again, with the two Fisher-bots in pursuit.
Fisher, Dr. X, Alex, and Amanda sprang.
Fisher pulled one to the ground and Dr. X delivered the coup de grace with his staff. Alex and Amanda grabbed the other. Three fistfuls of wires later, each was reduced to a lifeless metal and fake flesh shell.
Inside the King of Hollywood, Veronica was slowly backing away from the counter. “So do you have wombats?” she said as the remaining Fisher-bots began to slowly advance toward her. “No? Okay … I guess I’ll have some popcorn.”
